Here in hockey-happy Edmonton, chances are you’d have an easier time convincing someone rugby is a carpet-dwelling insect with a stinger rather than having them able to name the reigning World Cup champion.

Which is a big reason why Team Canada is ready, willing and able to open the Pacific Nations Cup tournament Saturday at 2 p.m. against the U.S. at Ellerslie Rugby Park rather than their usual home-game locales in Toronto or Victoria.

But it doesn’t get any closer to home for St. Albert’s Andrew Tiedemann, who has played with the national team since 2009, as well as having played professionally in France, and has seen first-hand just how popular rugby can get.

“I always played football growing up, so I never got into hockey, and it was just a natural transfer (to rugby). They made it available in school and (I thought) I’d give it a try. And it worked out pretty good.

“The big decision for me was when I was still in high school, I got selected to go to an under-17 tour. We traveled over to England and that’s where I really saw the popularity of the sport.

“Whereas here, you see basketball, football. That’s all you get exposed to, really. Seeing the world-wide scale of the sport was pretty interesting to me and I thought, ‘Why not travel the world for free?’ ”

While he is coming off a tour of duty with France’s FC Auch Gers and is busy preparing for another haul with Team Canada over the summer, Tiedemann always likes to come home to the St. Albert rugby football club whenever he can.

“Once in a while, I’ll make it back at least one weekend for the club, I usually like to try and get one match played,” he said. “And we do a bit of a coaching session the week before. I always like to try and give back to the club that helped me get to where I am now.”

While giving back to the sport, at the same time. Especially considering one of the players he’s coached may one day try following in his footsteps.

“I’ve noticed every year you get more and more,” Tiedemann said of rugby’s growing popularity among young athletes. “I think, personally, rugby is a great sport. The tag-line is it’s for all shapes and sizes: you’ve got tall, skinny guys; little, short guys and fat guys like myself, so everyone gets to play.”

At six-feet and 250 pounds, Tiedemann may be selling himself short, but there is no denying his logic.

“All you need is a pair of boots and a mouthguard, as opposed to football where you need all the expensive gear. Same with hockey,” he said. “It’s much like soccer, where anyone can get going on it.”

And that’s about where any similarity begins and ends between rugby and soccer.

Especially when it comes to popularity in Canada.

“It’s not he highest, but we’re working on it,” said Team Canada captain Aaron Carpenter. “I think in the last World Cup that we got a lot of focus on us and it really helped the rugby community get behind us.

“Bang for your buck, if you come out and watch rugby, you get a lot out of it.”

In 2011, Canada finished fourth in their pool to barely miss out on qualifying automatically for the 2015 World Cup — where New Zealand will look to defend its championship.

Rugby in Canada has a long way to go to match the sport's popularity worldwide

Here in hockey-happy Edmonton, chances are you’d have an easier time convincing someone rugby is a carpet-dwelling insect with a stinger rather than having them able to name the reigning World Cup champion.

Which is a big reason why Team Canada is ready, willing and able to open the Pacific Nations Cup tournament Saturday at 2 p.m. against the U.S. at Ellerslie Rugby Park rather than their usual home-game locales in Toronto or Victoria.

But it doesn’t get any closer to home for St. Albert’s Andrew Tiedemann, who has played with the national team since 2009, as well as having played professionally in France, and has seen first-hand just how popular rugby can get.

“I always played football growing up, so I never got into hockey, and it was just a natural transfer (to rugby). They made it available in school and (I thought) I’d give it a try. And it worked out pretty good.

“The big decision for me was when I was still in high school, I got selected to go to an u